Once fit, I have no problem with dropping Bairstow for Jason Roy. Then drop Malan down to 3 and bring in Zak Crawley who if he's going to play bish, bash, bosh as an opener he might as well do it in ODIs. Obviously this drops Root, seemingly out of form in 50 overs. Then 3 out of 4 of Brook, Buttler, Stokes and Livingstone.
Crawley
Roy
Malan
Brook/Buttler/Stokes/Livingstone (pick 3)
Presumably Buttler has to be one of them to keep wicket (unless you risk Duckett as an opener)
Moeen for balance and a last hurrah.
Curran at 8
Willey (at 9 ffs!)
Woakes (at 10 ffs!)
Rashid
One hell of a batting line-up with possibly Rashid and Moeen as the weaker links on current form.
I think Brook is fighting (and losing) with Livingstone because Livingstone bowls a bit. But you can trust your bowlers no? Australia just did against South Africa. Only 5 used. They conceded 416/5 with Zampa going for 0-113 so maybe there's a flaw in that argument...
So Roy is out. Root has to start. He flew a bit under the radar in 2019 but he was England's top scorer. He should be there for the same reason Stokes should be there. They've done it before, under pressure, and Root is still England's best batter. 50-over cricket is now if anything closer to test cricket than to t20. He has to play.
Roy is the unlucky one. Got injured at just the wrong time.
I'm still not convinced by Curran. If anything, t20 appears to be his thing. He's played one significant innings in 20-odd ODIs and while he's admired for his death bowling, he does go around the park a fair bit. Woakes is as good a batter and a better bowler imo.
Moeen plays, yes, as a last hurrah. His ODI stats are underwhelming, but as ever hope springs eternal with Moeen. He is very hit and miss but I still like him coming in at seven.
Meanwhile, Wood should play wherever it suits and he's fit. IPL has shown that raw pace is effective in white ball cricket in India. There's a reason the quickest bowlers go for big money. They need that point of difference on flat tracks. If it's seaming a bit, ok leave him out. He probably can't play every match anyway, particularly if England hope to take him back to India for the tests, which is looking unlikely now he's signalled that he doesn't want a central contract.
I think this WC is wide open. I make India favourites because they are at home, but half a dozen teams could potentially win it. For the first time, no West Indies. I know they don't deserve to be there on performances, but it feels wrong.
Good luck to the Dutch. They're going to need it.
